Bev Oda, Stephen Harper’s one-time Minister for International Co-operation, was hounded from office after she ordered a $16 glass of orange juice while staying at the Savoy Hotel in London, and then tried to write off both the juice and the luxury hotel room — as well as a $1,000-a-day limousine — as expenses.

Oda sought to defend herself, arguing that she was on official business at the time, but the hue and cry was too great and she stepped down just before an anticipated cabinet shuffle in which she was all but certain to be demoted or fired.

It was the proper result to an unacceptable display of official arrogance, entitlement and the squandering of public funds. And it set a benchmark that should now be applied to the equally egregious cases involving three members of the Senate: Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and Mac Harb.

The trio have been asked to repay more than $190,000 in improperly claimed allowances, mostly related to housing. Senators are permitted to file for the expense of accommodation in Ottawa while they are away from their primary residence in the province they represent. An independent audit, released Thursday, found none of the three spent even a third of their time in the home they claimed as their main residence, yet billed taxpayers anyway. Brazeau was in Maniwaki, Que., his claimed residence, just 10% of the time; Harb was at his “home” in Westmeath, Ont. just 22% of the time and Duffy spent 70% of his time away from the cottage in Cavendish, P.E.I., preferring his home on a golf course near Ottawa.

None of the three has shown much in the way of contrition. Harb has quit the Liberal caucus and hired a lawyer to contest his treatment. Brazeau was evicted from the Conservative caucus and sits as an Independent. Duffy insists the rules on primary residences were too confusing (though the rest of the Senate appears to have figured them out) and repaid his $90,000 only after considerable public hounding. Reports Friday also indicated he claimed $1,000 in daily living allowance while on vacation in Florida, which he blamed on a “clerical error”, and “discovered” only after an “informal conversation” with the head of the Senate’s internal economy committee.

Although none of the three has been charged with a criminal offence, Liberal Senate leader James Cowan said it would be “appropriate” for the RCMP to investigate. The minimum response to the audit should be expulsion of all three from the Senate. An argument put forward by Senate majority leader Marjory LeBreton, that the rules governing senators’ primary and secondary residences were not clear enough, doesn’t wash. A senator is required by the Constitution to reside in the province he or she was appointed to represent. It shouldn’t require a forensic audit to understand that spending 70% to 90% of your time away from home doesn’t meet that test. Anyone arguing otherwise either isn’t trying too hard, or lacks the minimum intellectual capacity we should expect of Senate members.

Apart from the financial shenanigans confirmed by the audit, the attitudes displayed by Brazeau, Duffy and Harb — a mixture of defiance and contempt — should not be countenanced, either by the public or other senators. Duffy insisted against all evidence that he considered his home to be the small cottage in Cavendish, even after neighbours said they rarely saw him and photos depicted a cabin deep in snow that hadn’t been creased by tire-track or footprint. Harb claimed $43,056 for accommodations, meals, mileage and incidentals even though the bungalow he claimed as his primary home was less than a two-hour drive from Ottawa.

Just as Oda was brought down as much by her attitude as by her actions, Harb, Duffy and Brazeau have shown themselves to be unworthy of the respect that comes with position to which they were appointed. The unseemly saga they set off has undermined respect for the Senate and provided fuel to those who would be happy to see it abolished. “There is no more of the honour system around this place,” said LeBreton, noting that tougher oversight would be the rule in future.

She could easily have left the word “system” out of that sentence and been referring to the three senators in question.

The federal Conservatives have reclaimed the central Ontario seat they lost earlier this year when cabinet minister Bev Oda resigned under a cloud.

Erin O’Toole — a former air force pilot and navy captain turned corporate lawyer — easily won today’s byelection in the riding of Durham, leaving the second-place New Democrat challenger well in his wake.

A cheer went up from Durham supporters when O’Toole hit 50 per cent of the popular vote, leaving NDP candidate Larry O’Connor with 26.8 per cent _ an improvement for the party over 2011, but still far from enough.

“That’s what you need,” one O’Toole supporter enthused as his candidate broke the magical 50 per cent barrier.

Oda, 68, stepped down in July after a series of spending and expense controversies that tarnished the Conservative brand as tight-fisted managers.

The byelection was one of three called by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to replace MPs who resigned for various reasons.

In a closely watched race unfolding in Calgary Centre, Conservative candidate Joan Crockatt was in a tight, see-saw battle against Liberal hopeful Harvey Locke, with Green party candidate Chris Turner running a close third.

In Victoria, a seemingly solid NDP seat, New Democrat candidate Murray Rankin was in a tough early battle with Donald Galloway of the Greens, with both getting support in the mid to high 30s in early counting.

The Conservative government is eliminating overtime for ministers’ drivers and subsidized parking for ministerial chiefs of staffs, as it looks to rein in spending and prepares to overhaul pension plans for public servants and MPs.

Following some large hospitality bills approved by public servants, the government is also moving to have ministers sign off on all government social events and hospitality gatherings costing more than $25,000.

The Tory government is moving cabinet ministers’ drivers — who were previously considered public sector workers — into the ministers’ offices as ‘exempt staff.’ The move will pay the drivers a higher salary — maximum of $66,000 per driver — but eliminate overtime claims, saving taxpayers a minimum $225,000 annually (or about $9,000 per driver), Clement said Tuesday.

The decision comes after the government faced fierce criticism in recent months — including from some of its own Conservative backbenchers — for ministers’ drivers racking up more than $600,000 in overtime last year above their annual salaries, often while they waited on standby for cabinet members.

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The average ministerial driver was paid $20,000 in overtime last year, according to news reports from earlier this year, in addition to their annual salaries which ranged from $46,883 to $50,755.

Public Works and Government Services Minister Rona Ambrose’s driver cashed in the most, billing the government $40,074 for more than 1,000 overtime hours. Clement’s driver, meanwhile, was on “standby” for more than 360 days last year and billed the public purse accordingly.

The government is also ending subsidized parking for ministerial chiefs of staff (at a savings of about $40,000 annually), Clement said Tuesday, which follows a similar decision to eliminate parking subsidies for government executives as of last June. Together, the initiatives are expected to save taxpayers almost $2.7 million annually.

“These savings send a signal through the government that living within our means, finding efficiencies and ending entitlements are the way forward,” Clement said Tuesday in a speech to the Economic Club of Canada.

On top of calls to cut MP pensions to reign in government spending, other Members of Parliament have been criticized for their own lavish habits.

Former Minister for International Cooperation Bev Oda came under fire before her retirement this year for her dubious spending practices. She received flack for a trio she took to London in June, during which she staying in a luxury hotel on the public dollar and ordered a $16 glass of orange juice.

She was heavily criticized for staying at the Savoy, a swanky hotel frequented by royalty, after refusing to sleep at a cheaper five-star hotel. She also hired a limousine to drive her around during the trip, at a cost of $1,000 a day.

She later paid back the difference between the costs of the two hotels.

Some other questions about Oda’s spending habits abroad have yet to be resolved. Records show that Oda modified the amounts related to expenses on a number of recent trips, but has refused to reveal why those figures were changed.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) was been inundated with access to information requests earlier this year.

With files from the National Post and The Canadian Press

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/say-goodbye-to-cheap-parking-for-ministers-aides-tony-clement/feed/0stdTreasury Board President Tony Clement delivers a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa on Tuesday, October 2, 2012.Keith Beardsley: The Oda file grows despite her departurehttp://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/keith-beardsley-the-oda-file-grows-despite-her-departure
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/keith-beardsley-the-oda-file-grows-despite-her-departure#commentsMon, 10 Sep 2012 15:30:00 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=90368

It is being reported that then minister for CIDA, Bev Oda, was charged a penalty fee of US$250 in 2010 for smoking in her hotel room in Washington. Rather than pay it herself, she inexcusably expensed the penalty to her department. It probably explains why she switched hotels in London to one that allowed smoking (and where she ran into trouble over her orange juice). Oda eventually repaid this amount when her expenses came under review, a review I expect that was ordered by PMO, but how on earth was she allowed to claim this expense in the first place?

Not only was that expense outrageous, it added to a long string of poor behavior, all of which was carried out at the taxpayers’ expense. Ministers are supposed to set an example, and to lead by example. I had to deal with a couple of Oda’s previous indiscretions involving the use of limousines and it always shocked me that a minister couldn’t see that this was wrong.

Ministers don’t act alone. They have staff to both offer advice and at the same time protect them from follies such as this one. Ministerial staff serve as a check on a minister. Ministerial expense forms should at the very least be reviewed and signed off by the chief of staff. In many cases there will be another assistant who reviews them once they are handed in. Didn’t anyone question Oda’s claim? Didn’t anyone question her other limousine and hotel expenses?

The Conservatives will have a problem if their chief of staffs are either too weak or too inexperienced to sit down with their minister and read them the riot act. You don’t want “yes men” in that position. You want experienced staffers who are not afraid to go head to head with a minister on an issue, or on an inappropriate expense claim such as this one.

No minister is perfect. Minister’s make mistakes, many of them unknowingly. These mistakes are the food that opposition parties feed on and invariably they become the subject of Question Period attacks. Considering Oda’s previous issues with her expense claims one would think they would be scrutinized carefully. Who was taking care of business and going through her expense claims before they were submitted to the department?

Smoking in your hotel room and then charging the penalty fee to the taxpayer! It leaves you shaking your head in amazement at the stupidity you come across in politics.

National Post

Keith Beardsley served as a senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for issues management to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Read more at his blog, here.

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The issue of her expenses had become a thorn in the Conservative government’s side, with backbench Tory MPs reporting that they heard about her high-flying ways on the doorstep more often than any other issue.

Cabinet ministers are required to publicly disclose their spending on travel and hospitality.

The files made public for Oda show that expense reports for several trips during her five years as international co-operation minister have been amended.

But the details of why they were changed aren’t posted to the website.

Officials in her department say some — but not all — of the amendments in her expense claims are the result of repayments.

A total dollar figure for the amount she was forced to repay the public purse has never been revealed, but her office insists that every questionable expense was repaid.

Many had questioned why Oda spent so long in cabinet, given her spending habits. During the London trip in 2011, she billed taxpayers for the cost of rejecting one five-star hotel in London, England and rebooking at a swankier establishment at more than double the rate. She also hired a luxury car and driver at an average cost of nearly $1,000 a day.

In 2006, she used limousines to ferry her to and from the Juno Awards ceremony in Halifax, racking up $5,475 in bills.

When the expenses were criticized in the House of Commons, she said she had reimbursed the taxpayer $2,200 of the bill.

A year later, Oda billed taxpayers more than $1,200 for another limousine ride that took her to both a government event and a party activity.

Besides the spending scandals, Oda left a mixed legacy behind at CIDA.

Some praised her ability to focus the agency’s work and more directly target aid, especially in making the decision to untie assistance, meaning goods could be sourced from wherever they were most cost efficient.

But others criticized her approach to partnerships with the non-governmental sector, arguing that those relationships had become politicized.

She was replaced in the post by Julian Fantino, who had been leading the government’s efforts on the F-35 fighter jet file.

Bev Oda could serve as the poster-person for what annoys, frustrates and alienates Canadians about politicians.

The former minister of international co-operation is leaving politics of her own volition, she insists. She’s been thinking about it for quite some time. Her sudden departure, announced suddenly last month as she was caught in yet another embarrassment over her expenses, has nothing to do with the trip to London in which she famously upgraded to a more expensive hotel, demanded limousine service when taxis were easily available, and billed taxpayers for a $16 glass of orange juice.

No one really believes that, just as no one believed Ms. Oda earlier this year when she claimed she had no idea who had inserted the word “not” in her response to an application for aid funding, reversing the decision from positive to negative. It would be hard to find anyone willing to accept anything Ms. Oda says on face value, given her history of trying slip, slide or slither away from straightforward answers to simple questions.

That’s one of the problems. Politicians like Oda aren’t trustworthy, not are they accountable. The orange juice controversy raised reports of numerous other instances in which she evidently played funny games with expense allowances, so much so that several had to be restated in recent weeks. Neither Ms. Oda nor her officials will provide details or an explanation; they evidently don’t figure the people who pay the bills deserve one.

The former minister finally acknowledged in a departing interview Tuesday, when her resignation took effect, that expensing the orange juice was a mistake.

“I arrived in London, it was very late, I was working on a speech I was to give the next morning,” she told the CBC.

“But you know, that cost of the orange juice was not maybe the appropriate expense for the government to pay. I have repaid that cost and I have apologized for it.”

“Maybe not the appropriate expense?” Come on, it was a colossal blunder that made her look ridiculous, held the government up to mockery, and brought about the end of her career. Would it be too demeaning to admit it earlier, when it might have done some good?

Politicians won’t do that, because they fear it might cost them votes. In fact, they likely lose far more votes by sticking pig-headedly to fanciful justifications invented to rationalize foolish decisions. Ms. Oda is not alone in that – think Peter MacKay and his need to be airlifted by helicopter from his vacation – but she’s been particularly maladroit at fending off the critics.

Though she’s only been an MP for eight years, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation calculates she will qualify for a parliamentary pension of $52,183 a year. That’s nearly $700,000 in benefits by age 80, although she contributed just $130,000 to her pension. Most Canadians, even those remaining few with decent pension plans, would have to work a lifetime to reach that level of return. Far more are lacking any plan at all and depend on their own ability to save and invest.

Yesterday Oda issued an open letter to her constituents, thanking them for their support.

“I have had the outstanding privilege and opportunity to serve my constituents and Canada,” she said.

You could say that again. And a highly profitable and lavish one it was. Next time politicians scratch their heads over the public’s reluctance to get involved in the political debate, they should remember Bev Oda and take a look around, because there are far too many similar cases like her to turn off Canadian voters.

Yesterday Bev Oda issued an open letter to her constituents, thanking them for their support.

“I have had the outstanding privilege and opportunity to serve my constituents and Canada,” she said.

You could say that again. And a highly profitable and lavish one it was. Next time politicians scratch their heads over the public’s reluctance to get involved in the political debate, they should remember Bev Oda and take a look around, because there are far too many similar cases like her to turn of Canadian voters.

Embattled former cabinet minister Bev Oda offered no explanation Tuesday for her decision to resign as she prepared for her life as a private citizen — one who will garner nearly $700,000 in benefits by age 80 despite contributing only about $130,000 to her pension.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has calculated that the 67-year-old Oda now qualifies for a parliamentary pension of $52,183 a year.

Oda announced in a press release July 3 that she would step down, effective at the end of the month, but didn’t reveal at the time what sparked the decision.

During her tenure as international co-operation minister, when she was responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, or CIDA, Oda made headlines for lavish spending while travelling on government business.

She was forced to repay taxpayers for $1,000 per day in limousine expenses, a pricey stay at London’s Savoy Hotel in 2011 and for a $16 glass of orange juice.

In an interview Tuesday with CBC’s Power and Politics, Oda said she had no regrets about ordering the juice, although she acknowledged that she should not have billed taxpayers for it.

“I arrived in London, it was very late, I was working on a speech I was to give the next morning,” she said.

“But you know, that cost of the orange juice was not maybe the appropriate expense for the government to pay. I have repaid that cost and I have apologized for it.”

Oda was also forced to apologize after a CIDA funding document was altered with the word ’not’ scrawled in handwriting, ultimately denying funding to an aid agency.

REUTERS/Chris WattieBev Oda in an undated photo.

Oda issued an open letter to her constituents Monday, thanking them for backing her.

“My sincere appreciation for your support over the past eight years and special thanks to my volunteers, riding association and staff,” Oda said in the letter.

“I have had the outstanding privilege and opportunity to serve my constituents and Canada.”

The letter also offered best wishes for whomever is elected to replace her. A byelection in the southern Ontario riding of Durham has yet to be called and may not happen for another six months.

She also recalled the pride and pleasure she took from being involved in everything from international affairs to local events.

“Every year at our agricultural fairs, I saw our strong rural roots flourish. And you demonstrated your compassion for others through tremendous efforts to support local, national and international institutions, organizations and charities,” Oda wrote.

Since her first election victory in 2004, Oda served as heritage critic while in opposition, and then as heritage minister and most recently as the minister for international co-operation.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has calculated that the 67-year-old Oda now qualifies for a parliamentary pension of $52,183 a year.

She stands to collect nearly $700,000 in benefits by age 80 despite contributing only about $130,000 to her pension, the CTF estimated.

Toronto-area MP Julian Fantino, formerly associate defence minister responsible for military procurement, has taken on the international development portfolio in Oda’s place.

The revelation that former international co-operation minister Bev Oda allegedly smoked in her government office, and expensed an air purifier to help mitigate the effects (or reduce the trace) of the same, could give taxpayers one more reason to be pleased Ms. Oda is leaving politics in a couple weeks.

It seems absurd that the woman heading up Canada’s international aid department would be lighting up on government property at the same time that her department was spending $829,715 on a project to get people in Brazil to stop using tobacco.

But let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she was hopelessly addicted to tobacco herself. Couldn’t she nonetheless have stepped outside for her smoke breaks like all the other smokers in the rest of the office world, rather than billing taxpayers for an air purifier?

Ms. Oda smoking away in her office did not have any ill effects on the Brazil anti-tobacco program (though, as an aside, good lord, aren’t there better ways to spend our international aid money?). There is also no chance at all that the $50 turned over to Walmart for the purification device had any discernible impact on the federal budget — if only such amounts actually registered in the grand scheme of government spending, we’d be in much better shape.

But the behaviour does reinforce the image Bev Oda has created for herself: A politician without enough respect for the voters she represents to think through how her actions will come across. No, heading out into the cold for cigarettes wouldn’t have saved any lives, but it would have sent the message that Ms. Oda did not consider herself entitled to special treatment. Same idea with expensing an air purifier: Had Ms. Oda paid out of her own pocket, she wouldn’t have forestalled the need for austerity measures, but she would have sent the message that she knew she was responsible for taking care of the ill effects of her own habits.

She might also have lessened the number of times Canadians would be muttering, as the end of July draws near, “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

The Prime Minister must be chuckling, having put one over on reporters and pundits. Last week he conducted what can best be described as a micro shuffle as it really wasn’t big enough to be called a mini shuffle. With no warning to the media who cover such items, everyone was taken by surprise.

Julian Fantino moving to CIDA to replace the departing Bev Oda was certainly a surprise. One also has to wonder how that will improve the way the government handles CIDA or defends actions CIDA takes. Oda was notoriously weak in Question Period and when appearing before committees. Fantino fits into the same category and many of the existing parliamentary secretaries perform better than Fantino every day of the week in the House. To his credit though, he is supposed to be a very good administrator and perhaps that is the reason he was sent there.

Bernie Valcourt moving to become the Associate Minister at Defence was also a surprise, but he has done a good job at the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency while working hard at the political level in Atlantic Canada. Valcourt has a fair amount of cabinet experience from the Mulroney era, including with line departments. He will have his hands full with procurement issues in the months ahead.

There is always a ripple effect to a micro shuffle such as this.

There were lots of very unhappy backbenchers last night, many of whom could have easily stepped into Bev Oda’s position at CIDA. Just looking at the Ontario roster of MPs and one can see several very competent choices who could have stepped up to fill her position swapping one Ontario MP for another without changing the overall composition of cabinet.

We also have to keep in mind that shuffles are part of caucus management. Disappoint too often and your backbenchers get restless and become more outspoken and difficult to manage.

Instead of seeing some promotions from within, today backbenchers will have to stifle their disappointment and continue to look at ministers who have performed poorly, hurt the government image or in some cases who have simply been in the same position too long. Sometimes it is a good idea to move ministers, even your better ones, because they become stale if they stay in their position for a long period. A move reinvigorates your best ministers and breathes life into a cabinet.

Brian Mulroney was a master at caucus management. If you were a minister you never knew when he would move you, hence you worked hard and focused on the task at hand. If you were a junior minister or parliamentary secretary you worked equally hard as many of his ministerial appointments came from those ranks and if you were a backbencher you also knew you had a shot at the big time if you worked hard. There will be plenty of MPs wondering today what they have to do to get recognized for their hard work and contributions.

Today the speculation is around why this micro shuffle and why was it carried out without notice when typically a government uses such an occasion to talk about the government’s priorities and promote the profile of the new ministers etc. Only the PM can answer that one.

Maybe what took place was what the Prime Minister planned all along and the last laugh is his over the media and pundits. Certainly departments other than those two (CIDA and Defence) were preparing transition books for new ministers so they would also have been taken by surprise. Perhaps there was a last minute glitch and someone wouldn’t move or maybe the PM thinks this move is sufficient. If so, I expect he will be one of the few in the Conservative caucus who does.

National Post

Keith Beardsley served as a senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for issues management to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Read more at his blog, here.

OTTAWA — Julian Fantino will have his eye on penny-pinching in his new role as the minister in charge of the Canadian International Development Agency, he said Saturday.

The former Ontario Provincial Police chief turned Toronto-area MP will be looking for efficiencies as he takes over the country’s $5-billion foreign aid program, he said, ensuring that the agency has accountability and that it will achieve the “optimum results” with taxpayer money.

“I will be bringing also to that particular job or responsibility my own previous value system, if you will, with respect to ensuring that every nickel of taxpayer money is spent for the right reasons,” Fantino told CBC’s The House.

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He may also look at adjustments to the relationships with non-governmental organizations working in the developing world, Fantino said, adding that it’s too soon to know for sure.

Is the Fantino move enough?

The speculation, such as it was, has come primarily from the Tory backbenches, and more broadly from within the network of Tory-linked communications and lobbying firms that feed ideas and feedback to the government, while swapping information and speculation about who’s up and who’s down, who’s performing well and who badly, and so on. Official Ottawa is a village, whose residents love nothing better than to gossip over the backyard fence.

It is these people, primarily, who’ve been anticipating a summer cabinet shuffle. Now, why would that be?

Because they are not all unthinking, blindly obedient automatons, some Conservative MPs, staffers and strategists are intensely aware that the past year has been rocky, with the government repeatedly side-swiped by controversy or scandal, from C-31 to Robocalls to the F-35.

Just as there was no appetite internally for any further Oda-related bad optics, there’s impatience at the degree of damage sustained by all, because of the problems of a few — Peter MacKay, Julian Fantino, Vic Toews, Christian Paradis and Dean Del Mastro, to name five. In demoting them, Harper would have satisfied primarily internal critics. In supporting them (or promoting them, in Fantino’s case), he is stiff-arming these same critics.

“I will want to ensure that CIDA’s work priorities, if you will, are directly connected to the international policies of the government, which is, as you know, we serve at the will of the people.”

Last Tuesday, former international cooperation minister Bev Oda announced on her website that she was stepping down as an MP at the end of the month, following a furor over lavish spending, including limousine rides and a $665-per-night stay in a posh London hotel where she charged taxpayers for a $16 glass of orange juice.

Fantino was quietly named the new minister the next day by Stephen Harper, in a move that drew criticism to the prime minister himself for making any further changes to his cabinet despite a rocky political year.

While Fantino exited as associate minister of defence, it was widely expected that Defence Minister Peter Mackay would be shuffled too, over the troubled F-35 purchase. Public Security Minister Vic Toews was considered another top candidate to be moved due to his mishandling of his scuttled online surveillance bill.

In an editorial this week, The Economist, a mostly right-leaning British magazine, said Harper is giving the opposition an opening by being inflexible and claimed the prime minister is “intolerant of criticism and dissent.”

Speaking on an Alberta radio show Thursday, Harper ruled out both a major cabinet shuffle and prorogation of the House of Commons until the government reaches the halfway point of its majority mandate.

Prorogation is when the legislature “resets” itself with a throne speech and new bills. Harper said he considered the move, but decided against it for the time being.

“I didn’t see any reason to do it right now. We’ve still got a number of pieces of legislation we do want to pass,” Harper told host Dave Rutherford, whose show is broadcast province-wide on CHQR and CHED.

“I think what I am more likely to do … is probably in mid-term — we will probably have a new session mid-term.”

Harper said the performance of cabinet ministers will be assessed halfway through his government’s mandate and that’s when any big changes will be made.

“We’ll take a look at how everybody is performing and make some major changes at that point,” he said. “But I think between now and then let’s keep everybody focused on the job we got elected to do.”

Meanwhile, Fantino’s appointment prompted immediate reactions from international development experts and opposition critics who questioned his credentials.

While admitting that CIDA is a “very challenging portfolio,” Fantino said Saturday that, as a police leader, he’s already been involved on the international front on many different levels.

As the former commissioner of emergency management for Ontario, he was responsible for the province’s assistance to the United States after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, he said. He also traveled to Pakistan in 2008 to oversee the province’s response to a deadly earthquake there.

“I’ve had a lot of experience, you know, widely,” he said.

And the job is about more than that “particular area of focus,” Fantino said.

“It’s also about leadership, it’s also about dealing with issues, the problems, managing budgets, making tough decisions — those kinds of issues,” Fantino said.

“I think I’ve been there and done that.”

Some of the far-reaching and controversial changes during Oda’s time as international cooperation minister included shifting aid from poor African nations to middle-income trading partners, overhauling the way the federal government works with non-governmental organizations, and solidifying the link between international assistance and Canadian mining companies, particularly those operating in Latin America.

A major report by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development last month took issue with the shift away from Africa, the Harper government’s plan to cut $377-million, or about 7.5%, from the aid budget over the next three years, and a failure to delegate authority into the field.

Fantino said he’s impressed with the work that’s been done at CIDA and that it would be unfair for him to pass judgment until he learns more about the operation.

“Everyone in this difficult economic times have had to rethink, revisit and reevaluate and maybe reprioritize what we do with the situation and the scarce dollars available,” he said.

“The adjustments have to be made, and CIDA has been making those adjustments. There may be a need for more, and we’ll have to look at that certainly.”

So that’s it, then: The government is on track. Europe is tanking, China slowing, the U.S. struggling. Therefore, no time to waste shuffling the cabinet, beyond plugging the hole created by Bev Oda’s unlamented departure. The Harper team is hell-bent on doing its important economic work! Everyone — especially the yammering media and the “armchair strategists” who had expected more substantive change — should get a life.

Well, OK. But allow me to raise a timid, dissenting hand, and pose a few timid, dissenting questions.

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First, we should note that there may yet be a deeper, broader shuffle in the fall. But assuming there isn’t: Why has there been such a chorus of anticipation about a late summer cabinet redo that would go beyond the superficial and push new blood (read younger, less jaded and more female) into the inner circle? Hmm. Could it be because many Conservatives themselves believe such a refit would have been in their interest? Could it be some have their ears to the ground in a way that their boss, perhaps, no longer does?

Contrary to the impression you may have gotten from the rabid, mindless partisanship in the House of Commons or in the Twitterverse, not all party loyalists are unthinking automatons who line up to salute every move by the reigning clique. The opposite often holds true, in every party. A hallmark of this Conservative government, often ignored by its critics, has been the degree to which it paid heed to those internal, dissenting voices. It was internal dissent, not a public outcry, that scuttled Vic Toews’ abortive Bill C-30, the “online snooping bill,” last fall.

The Prime Minister’s Office has been mum about a cabinet shuffle. The speculation, such as it was, has come primarily from the Tory backbenches, and more broadly from within the network of Tory-linked communications and lobbying firms that feed ideas and feedback to the government, while swapping information and speculation about who’s up and who’s down, who’s performing well and who badly, and so on. Official Ottawa is a village, whose residents love nothing better than to gossip over the backyard fence.

It is these people, primarily, who’ve been anticipating a summer cabinet shuffle. Now, why would that be?

Because they are not all unthinking, blindly obedient automatons, some Conservative MPs, staffers and strategists are intensely aware that the past year has been rocky, with the government repeatedly side-swiped by controversy or scandal, from C-31 to Robocalls to the F-35.

Just as there was no appetite internally for any further Oda-related bad optics, there’s impatience at the degree of damage sustained by all, because of the problems of a few — Peter MacKay, Julian Fantino, Vic Toews, Christian Paradis and Dean Del Mastro, to name five. In demoting them, Harper would have satisfied primarily internal critics. In supporting them (or promoting them, in Fantino’s case), he is stiff-arming these same critics.

There’s a growing sense in Conservative circles that the government does not have its freshest horses in the race. MPs James Rajotte, Chris Alexander, Kellie Leitch, Michelle Rempel, and Candice Hoeppner all have distinguished themselves, either in pre-political life or as foot-soldiers in the Commons. They have supporters in the Tory caucus who would like to see them shine.

It is not a coincidence they tend towards youth or that there are women among them. Some Conservatives are justifiably leery of being perceived as the political equivalent of the angry old coot on his porch, shaking his fist and throwing little sticks at passing children.

If you don’t like it you can vote us out in 2015. Until then, you may as well, as brides in Victorian England were kindly advised, ‘lie back and think of England’

Here’s the message Harper has sent to those folks, fighters within his own ranks, as the government heads into majority year two: Be mindful of your place. Your views don’t matter. And stop blabbering so much to the media, as that will get you and your agenda a whole lot of nothing. In year two, as a means of maintaining cohesion and discipline, this strategy will probably work. What about in year four? Presumably the prime minister will eventually again require the services of the whole party, rather than just the coterie of insiders at its centre.

Beyond the party, and even more troubling, is Harper’s message to the broader population: Whatever concerns or objections you may have to either our program or the manner of its delivery, you can set those aside. Your views don’t matter. Public opinion polls, showing NDP support rising and Conservative support sliding since the May 2011 election, don’t matter either. We have our majority. We are in control. If you don’t like it you can vote us out in 2015. Until then, you may as well, as brides in Victorian England were kindly advised, “lie back and think of England.”

Really? Stephen Harper, the hard man with the economic plan, has shown time and again that he is not to be underestimated. But this kind of obduracy, after the year the Conservatives have had? It is, simply, weird. It’s difficult to see where they go from here, once the economic agenda becomes furniture.

Weeks of speculation about a big summer shuffle, and what do we get? Fantino for Oda, which is a bit like trading a 10-year-old Civic for a nine-year-old Corolla. As a career cop, the new minister is as deeply steeped in the intricacies of foreign aid as was Ms. Oda, whose real-life job was in broadcasting. They share the same bubbly, outgoing personality, with a joy in bantering with the press. Ms. Oda was originally appointed Heritage Minister, as it seemed to suit someone who had spent years in the TV business, but was diverted to International Co-operation when that strategy proved to be flawed. Mr. Fantino was recruited as a sure-fire asset in areas related to security and law-and-order. Oops, did someone say F-35? Now he too will be relegated to the unhappy world of delivering cash advances to struggling countries. No matter which recipients he favours, he will be criticized for failing to favour others. And no one will notice him, unless he’s dumb enough to order hyper-expensive orange juice at a conference on poor people.

As for the pundits, their summer has been ruined. With little else going on in Ottawa, speculating on a shuffle was their best bet for a warm-weather occupation. (Second place went to interpreting polls that pinpoint exactly how many Canadians would vote for the NDP, if there was an election today and people were paying attention, neither of which is the case). Now, not for the first time, the prime minister has whipped the rug out from under them. It’s a dirty trick, and they’re not taking it lying down. Not all of them, anyway. Lawrence Martin, a Globe and Mail columnist writing in iPolitics, is upset. Maybe there isn’t going to be a shuffle, he writes, but there should be.

“Is the prime minister capable of firing or disciplining anyone? With some ministers having run aground, with others having been in their posts too long, with senior bureaucrats having blundered, it seemed all too evident that he would wish to turn a page.”

… Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Defence Minister Peter MacKay should have been moved, along with others. There should have been changes at the level of parliamentary secretary as well, a case in point being the PM’s very own parliamentary secretary, Dean del Mastro.

Yeah, what’s wrong with the guy? Don’t blame us if we got it wrong: it’s the prime minister’s fault for not knowing how to do his job. And what message is he sending by sticking with the existing cabinet anyway? It’s like a newspaper that keeps running the same columnists, day after day, year in and year out.

…the message Mr. Harper is sending is that no changes are necessary, that everyone is doing a good job. That’s a strange call. If you look at the significant slippage of his government in opinion polls over the last few months, the public does not appear to agree with him.

See what I told you about those polls? Oddly, Mr. Martin’s colleague at the Globe, John Ibbitson, seems to think the cabinet is doing a pretty good job, and there was no real reason to start moving around the office furniture.

On all the major files – the key priorities for this government through the fall and next spring – the Prime Minister’s team is in place and doing its job. One can applaud or abhor the direction of the Harper government, but the cabinet is generally performing as a cabinet should – especially in a world where so much power is tightly held by the Prime Minister himself.

You see how confusing this is? Mr. Harper has pundits running in all directions. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he enjoys messing with their heads. And it gives him something to do with his summer, since he won’t be shuffling any cabinets.

Re: Subsidizing Cancer, editorial, July 4.
Just when it seemed the problems caused by asbestos mining in Canada were over, we learn that, for a few hundred jobs and who knows how many votes, the government of Quebec finds millions to throw at a dead horse. Despite the willful ignorance of Quebec Premier Jean Charest and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, all asbestos is dangerous. All Canadians should be concerned about asbestos, for it is not just foreign workers in poor counties who will die — it is workers right here in Canada.
Rather than a Canadian flag on the bundles of asbestos for export, lets put the true symbol for what is inside — a skull and crossbones. Pamela Fisher, Hamilton, Ont.

The Nuremberg principle that no one might be excused of wrongdoing on the grounds that they were just following orders, should be applied to all politicians who do not rise up against the reinstitution of the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Que. Douglas L. Martin, Hamilton, Ont.

Don’t be quick to judge Bev Oda

Re: Oda’s Legacy Stuck In Limo, John Ivison, July 4.
It’s time someone extended the quality of mercy to Bev Oda. Much of the priggish indignation levelled at her has to do with the infamous “$16 orange juice at the Savoy.” Are we such rubes that we are not aware that London, England, is perhaps the most expensive city in the world? The limousine expenses are another matter. However, considering that Ms. Oda is tragically hooked on the demon tobacco (which is virtually proscribed everywhere unless one pays, say for the exclusivity of a limousine) perhaps this “blind spot” on her part could be conceded with more magnanimity of spirit.
Call me a cynic if you will, but I cannot help but get the feeling that Ms. Oda’s transgressions would have been mitigated in the eyes of the chattering class of the fourth estate, and hence in popular opinion, if only she had been a Liberal cabinet minister. John Boehmer, Gatineau, Que.

… but then again

Bev Oda is remembered for her lavish spending of taxpayers’ money, but she also leaves behind a deeply troubling legacy of changes to Canada’s foreign aid. During her tenure, aid was first frozen and then cut. Poor countries, many of them in Africa, have been shunned, with foreign aid redirected to Canada’s trading partners. And tied aid, supposedly a thing of the past, has been reincarnated in the form of helping Canadian corporations to meet their overseas corporate social responsibility commitments. This diversion of Canada’s foreign aid to serve narrow commercial and political self-interest has hurt Canada’s reputation and betrayed the generosity of the Canadian people.
When choosing a replacement for Ms. Oda, Canada would do well to follow the lead of the World Bank. With its recent selection of Dr. Jim Yong Kim as president, the World Bank has placed itself in the hands of a visionary who has overcome numerous barriers to ensure that the benefits of development do in fact flow to the poorest. Here’s hoping that the change in leadership at CIDA ensures that the poorest once again have a place at the top of our own development agenda. Chitra Ramaswami, Calgary.

God vs. science

Re: Finding That G.D. Particle, July 4.
In seeking the “God particle,” scientists are only trying to catch a glimpse of themselves. As an avid reader and fan of the National Post’s “Junk Science” week, I am now skeptical of all science. Especially when billions of dollars have been spent and reputations and ego’s are at stake. The main difference between God and a scientist is that God does not think he is a scientist. Peter Sachs, Vancouver.

Please stop referring to the Higgs boson as a “God Particle,” especially in headlines. It has a name; please use it instead of silly nicknames. Brandon Snow, Halifax.

Lots of life in the ‘empty north’

Re: Proud Of The Oil Sands, Father Raymond J. de Souza, June 28.
The last time I viewed the “utter vastness of Alberta’s north” on a satellite image map, I was appalled to see the footprint of the oil sands operations was larger than the island of Barbados. Am I to believe this footprint and its impact will be “dwarfed by the utter vastness of Alberta’s north” when even more leases of boreal forest are being granted to oil companies?
I’m sure Father Raymond J. de Souza would have a different picture of the oil sands if he had toured the aboriginal reserves in the area and listened to the First Nations people adversely affected by the operations going on there. He would have learned that “Canada’s northern emptiness” is neither devoid of life nor free for the taking, but is instead First Nations hunting and fishing territory.
Unfortunately, in his zeal to present the oil sands as “more ethical,” he seems to have resurrected the old papal bulls that decreed indigenous peoples’ land as terra nullius (land belonging to no one”) and therefore legally exploitable. Jennifer Asimoudis, Ancaster, Ont.

Let’s remember battlefield lessons

Re: The End Of Canada’s Love Affair With The UN, June 30.
Conrad Black calls for reform of the United Nations. Within his list of its shortcomings, he asserts that during the 1956 Suez crisis, Henry Cabot Lodge (then U.S. ambassador to the UN) proposed the creation of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF Egypt). This may be an outing of Lester Pearson as the wrong recipient of the associated Nobel Peace Prize, and will earn Mr. Black both new admirers and reinvigorated detractors.
The Canadian Army played a leading role within the UNEF Egypt deployment from 1956 to 1967. This was first of many Canadian UN peacekeeping missions that earned the Army a well-deserved international reputation (Somalia aside). Unfortunately, it led to the Canadian political shibboleth that replacing warriors with peacekeepers is a sound national strategy. A properly trained and equipped combat force can readily step down to a peacekeeping role, but a peacekeeping force is less able to quickly deploy to mid-level combat operations
Let’s remember our peacekeeping history and our recent hard-learned battlefield lessons. And let’s avoid any new UN-initiated peacekeeping adventures. Ron Johnson, Victoria.

Running for others is a great idea

Re: Is Running An 8,000-km Marathon The Best Way To Fundraise?, June 23.
Reporter Tristin Hopper neglected some facts: Dr. Riley Senft, like Scott Cannata, ran across Canada in 2011. He raised $571,652 for prostate cancer. What would your economist say about those numbers? Could that have been made merely by putting in some overtime?
Colin Harris’ (Take Me Outside) goal for his cross-Canada run was to raise awareness to get our kids active. How would your economist quantify that endeavour? The One Nation Run raised money for child poverty in Canada!
How callous is it that Mr. Hopper can’t appreciate the basic human desire to help others by raising awareness about poverty, or that bastard of a disease, cancer? He should talk to the runners’ parents, and ask them how they feel about the money their kids raised. Or ask fellow Canadians — those who donated and give thanks to the runners. Or the ones who ran alongside with the hope they wouldn’t lose another loved one to cancer. Ask the children who met a real hero — a hero they ran with. Kelly Carney, Hamilton, Ont.

No sympathy for public workers

Re: The Civil Service’s Brief Detour To Reality, editorial, July 3.
I lost my job in a bank three years ago. At the time, my generous severance package was punitively gouged by the Canadian Revenue Agency and I was ineligible for Employment Insurance benefits despite paying large amounts into the EI scheme during my years of employment. Over the past three years, the only employment I have been able to procure is a series of short-term contracts that never materialize into full-time employment. I am currently unemployed again, with a family to support, yet today I had to withdraw some of the little money I had previously put aside in my RRSP in order to pay my property taxes.
Given that I am struggling to sustain my family and currently have no prospect of retirement whatsoever, I resent having to raid my modest RRSPs to enable public sector workers to retire in their 50s.
As a conservative who has worked in the private sector all my life, I do not expect government to do anything for me. However, as Ronald Reagan succinctly put it, is it really too much to ask that “government gets off the peoples’ backs”? Paul Higgins, North Vancouver, B.C.

Fund classrooms, not school boards

Re: School Board Expelled, Failed To Pass Budget, July 3.
This story from Vancouver is yet another reminder of the value of elected school boards. Last week, Quebec papers reported: “School board forecasts $47.5-million shortfall (Montreal Gazette, June 29) and “CSDM: déficit historique de 47-millions” (Le Devoir, June 30).
Meanwhile about 390 school trustees from across Canada are attending, at taxpayers’ expense, the annual Canadian School Boards Association “congress” at a pricey hotel in Quebec City. Why not use a large school for a modest ceremony to cut costs? And keep in mind that in 2008, the Canadian Teachers Federation produced a brief: “Child Poverty and Schools.”
Unfortunately, nothing much has changed since 1989, when a resolution passed in the House, promising to eradicate child poverty by 2000. A hungry child experiences a reduction in the motivation to learn, has lower self-esteem and is more likely to drop out. Investing our school tax dollars to fight child poverty would be more beneficial for society, rather than supporting self-aggrandizing congresses hosted by spendthrift school-board associations. Chris Eustace, Montreal.

Camp memories

Re: Playing Doctrine, June 30.
I went to one of these “think camps” starting in Grade 6. I spent about six weeks there every summer, learning about Judaism, socialism, Zionism and social justice. For a lot of Jewish teenagers, sleepover camp is a pretty big deal. Many fondly remember having fun at the beach, singing camp songs, and falling in love for the first time. While I did all those things, I also participated in regular intellectual discussions about issues such as genocide, poverty and racism.
I attribute my summers spent at camp to fostering the great compassion, critical thinking, and creativity that I now possess. While my friends at other camps spent all their time engaged in carefree fun, I was reading the works of existentialist philosopher Martin Buber and learning about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Summer camps should be encouraged to promote intellectualism in kids, and not vilified for doing so. Joshua Moskowitz, Thornhill, Ont.

Great Canada Days

Re: Maple Leafs Visible Across Can­ada, letters to the editor, July 4.
After weeks of seeing flags of many nations flying from cars, balconies and lawns, my disappointment at the dearth of Canadian flags turned to delight on Canada Day. Just as we were preparing for dinner on Meyers Lake in Muskoka, Ont., a flotilla of small boats slowly wended by. Canadian flags could be seen on each and every one. Shouts of “Happy Canada Day” rang out across the water, with the maple leaf (sugar, mountain and red) seen on hats, T-shirts, life jackets and placards. As the line of boats passed, many residents ran to their boats and joined these happy, proud Canadians.
The memory of this Canada Day will stay with me always. Although heritage and traditions may be celebrated and treasured, pride in one’s chosen country is equally important. Henrietta Wasik, Stoney Creek, Ont.

Re: The Greatest Canada Day Of Them All, Robert Fulford, June 30.
Robert Fulford writes that the greatest Canada Day of them all was in 1967. Actually, that was probably the greatest Dominion Day. David Townson, Toronto.

Wartime bris

Re: The Meaning of Circumcision, letters to the editor, July 4
In Tuesday’s paper, letter-writer John Harta told how he was spared certain death at the hands of the Nazis in 1945, since he was an uncircumcised Jew. I would like to present a corollary to his heartfelt and terrifying experiences. Many years ago, Rabbi Berel Wein counselled a guardian uncle to pursue bris milah (Jewish circumcision) for his charge, a young boy. The uncle declined, expressing the same experience recounted by Mr. Barta.
When the Nazis had reached the uncle’s town, they too had forced the males to disrobe and murdered all those who had been circumcised. Months later, the uncle brought his nephew back for circumcision.
Rabbi Wein asked the uncle what had led him to change his mind. His response? The presence or absence of circumcision will not stay the hand of those intent on blood. But if and when murderers come to kill his nephew, the uncle wanted him to know why. Harold Reiter, Thornhill, Ont.

Letter-writer Stephen Young ask why some religions want to “lop off a part” of a newborn, if they believe God created man in his own image. “Do they feel that His own design is somehow flawed?” he asks.
The question of whether God’s creation is flawed can be answered simply by the myriad corrections and modifications performed daily on the human body by the medical establishment. Last summer I was in Florence and happened upon the painting, The Circumcision of Christ by Andrea Mantegna. So what’s the big issue over this particular piece of tissue? If it was divinely approved for the son of God to undergo this bodily modification, who are the ethicists and medical “gods” of today to say otherwise? Dr. Joel L Goldman, Toronto.

The ‘Arabian Gulf’

Re: HMCS Regina Sails To Arabian Gulf To Join Forces, July 4.
I was distressed to read that HMCS Regina is sailing to replace HMCS Charlottetown “in the Arabian Gulf.”
Could the editors of the Post kindly covey to the leadership of both our Armed Forces and the Prime Minister’s Office this geographical fact: That after sailing past the Strait of Hormuz, one enters the “Persian Gulf.” The “Arabian Gulf” is, in fact, not a body of water but a political term referring to the gulf in perception between the Arab streets and their respective political leaderships. Korosh Khalili, Toronto.

Former Ontario Provincial Police chief Julian Fantino will take over Bev Oda’s job as international co-operation minister, the federal government announced today.

Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press Bev Oda resigned on Tuesday.

Oda, known for her dubious spending practices, announced yesterday she would step down at the end of the month as minister and as Member of Parliament for the Ontario riding of Durham.

Putting an end to further uncertainty, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office has stated there will be no further cabinet shuffle this summer, firmly squelching months of speculation that he was about to put a new face on his government.

“This is the only change that you’re going to be seeing to the ministry, to the cabinet. There will be no other changes,” Harper’s director of communications, Andrew MacDougall, said in an interview Wednesday.

MacDougall said that members of cabinet have the prime minister’s confidence and that the Tories will move ahead with an “ambitious” agenda when Parliament resumes in September.

“For the prime minister there are a lot of important files. The government is trying to move forward now and there’s a lot of work that’s ongoing. So the need here is for continuity, to make sure that we keep moving forward with what is a pretty ambitious policy agenda.

“We’re only a year into the new government and there’s still a lot of work to do and we have the ministers in place to do that work.”

Political pundits believe Oda, 67, chose to resign instead of waiting to be shuffled out of cabinet by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Before his new assignment, Fantino served as associate minister of national defence and minister of state (seniors).

Bernard Valcourt, a New Brunswick MP, will fill Fantino’s defence post but also continue his work as minister of state (Atlantic).

Oda wasn’t expected to survive a cabinet shuffle after her latest spending controversy in which she stayed at a luxury hotel in London, England, on the public dollar and ordered a $16 glass of orange juice.

Related

She was heavily criticized for staying at the Savoy, a swanky hotel frequented by royalty, after refusing to sleep at a cheaper five-star hotel. She also hired a limousine to drive her around during the trip, at a cost of $1,000 a day.

She later paid back the difference between the costs of the two hotels.

Some other questions about Oda’s spending habits abroad have yet to be resolved. Records show that Oda modified the amounts related to expenses on a number of recent trips, but has refused to reveal why those figures were changed.

Both Fantino and Valcourt were sworn in at Rideau Hall today, according to a news released from the PMO.

National Post, with files from Mark Kennedy, Postmedia News and The Canadian Press

You can tell it is summer in Ottawa by the never-ending speculation about a cabinet shuffle. First the bets were on mid-July, then it was mid- to late August followed by a short prorogation over the summer break period and a return of Parliament on the already established date of September 17. Now speculation is looking at an early- to mid-August shuffle. The one thing we do know is that the only person who really knows the answer rarely discusses his decisions, except with one or two key advisors.

It does look like Bev Oda had her ministerial year-end review with the Prime Minister about two weeks ago, which prompted her decision to announce she is stepping down as an MP on July 31. It was a good move on her part to get ahead of what looked like the inevitable embarrassment of being dropped from cabinet. At least this way she goes on her terms.

As for the rest of the cabinet, the rumour mill grinds on. Let’s indulge in a little speculation of our own. After a tough year, Peter MacKay is probably due for a move, which will precipitate other moves in the senior ranks as well. The problem is where to put him. There is some speculation about a switch with Rob Nicholson, the Justice Minister, which makes sense for MacKay as they are both lawyers, but not that much sense for Nicholson. His steady hand and diplomatic skills would be much better at Foreign Affairs.

Related

MacKay would also be an excellent fit as House Leader. He is well liked by all parties and is a good negotiator. He was House leader back in Progressive Conservative days. Moving MacKay into that slot would allow the prime minister the opportunity to repair some of the damage current House leaderPeter Van Loan has done to inter-party relationships and offer an opportunity to remedy the poisonous atmosphere in the House. Nicholson was also a highly respected House leader and this is another possible move for him.

The big question remains the Defence department, a department with a history of breaking ministers. If I had a choice I would send John Baird in. He has been the “go to” guy when the PM has a difficult department to deal with and Defence is certainly no exception. Despite his easy-going nature, Baird is tough as nails and would shake up that department like they have never seen before.

There is also renewed speculation around Vic Toews. Will he follow Oda out the door, or will he be moved? Toews was first elected in 2000 and after 12 years in the House he might be ready to call it quits. There was speculation a while back that he was in line for a judicial posting in Manitoba, but once again only the PM knows for sure.

This gives a sample of some of the speculation out there. Interesting days lie ahead and political careers may be made or broken when the Prime Minister makes his move.

National Post

Keith Beardsley served as a senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for issues management to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Read more at his blog, here.

Related

The 68-year-old CIDA minister bowed to the inevitable Tuesday, when she said she plans to leave politics by the end of the month.

“It is an inglorious end to an inglorious career, announced on a website in the middle of summer,” said one of her former staff members. Ms. Oda had one of the highest staff turnovers of any minister and people who have worked with her said she could be obnoxious and rude.

Yet no one denies she could also be effective. Working with a like-minded CIDA president in Margaret Biggs, Ms. Oda deconstructed the agency and sought to break the stranglehold of the non-governmental organizations, who had long dictated where Canada’s aid was spent.

James Haga, director of advocacy at Engineers Without Borders, said Canada’s aid programs remain imperfect, but under Ms. Oda important changes were introduced that have strengthened the effectiveness of the $5-billion we spend every year.

Tied aid (where donations are tied to companies from the donor country) was eliminated. Aid was concentrated in fewer countries – 48 in 2010, down from 100 in 2007 – a reform the Liberals had tried but failed to implement. Funding was cut from those NGOs that were funded annually simply because they were funded annually. And a new culture was introduced that focused on results, rather than inputs or process.

An OECD peer review, released last month, was broadly positive about many of the changes. “Canada is a more concentrated donor than in 2007, thus a more effective one,” the report said.

Mr. Haga said he doesn’t agree with all the reforms – he said he believes CIDA’s budget has been cut too deeply and that, after doubling aid to Africa, funding was shifted swiftly from some of the poorest countries on the continent to middle income countries where Canada wanted to curry political favour.

Yet there is much to admire. And at the centre of all these reforms was the much-maligned Ms. Oda. “She did what she was asked to do. The department did not like her but she established the rules come hell or high water. She was slow but competent and she did her homework,” said another former staffer.

But her downfall was rooted in a sense of entitlement that mirrored that of the NGOs she was sent to CIDA to usurp.

In 2006, she was forced to pay $2,200 to taxpayers for incurring $5,500 in limousine expenses at the Juno awards in Halifax. In 2008, she was accused of hiding a further $17,000 in limo expenses.

Her move from Canadian Heritage was a demotion that reflects a perception in government that CIDA is a low political priority, with little electoral upside.

Ms. Oda was apparently not humbled by the move and continued to behave as if she were accountable only to God, and perhaps the Prime Minister.

Few politicians can claim to have helped spark a general election, yet her initial assertion that she didn’t know who had inserted the word “not” on a funding application from a church-based aid group, KAIROS, contributed to the non-confidence motion that brought down the government last year.

Stephen Harper backed his minister through all her travails, but the publicity surrounding her conduct at the 2011 conference on the immunization of poor children in London caused such an outcry in the Conservative heartland that she had to go. The obscenity of the $665-a-night room at the Savoy, the $1,000-a-day limo, the $16-a-glass orange juice at a conference on child poverty was so stark that even Ms. Oda recognized it was unacceptable — or at least so she was forced to mouth an apology to the House of Commons.

The country’s first Japanese-Canadian MP has done some good things at CIDA.

Unfortunately, her legacy for most Canadians will be a photograph of her in sunglasses, cigarette dangling from her lips, that make her look like the driver of the getaway car. That and a glass of juice that could have immunized 16 kids against measles.

Just as speculation heats up about a shake-up in the cabinet ranks, controversy-plagued Minister for International Cooperation Bev Oda has announced she will quit parliament at the end of the month.

The 67-year-old, who was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year for her dubious spending practices, will step down as Member of Parliament for the Ontario riding of Durham on July 31, 2012.

Oda did not say why she was resigning, and her office said she was not available for comment, but the MP confirmed her resignation in a written statement posted online.

“For over eight years, it has been an [honour] and privilege to have served the constituents in Clarington, Scugog and Uxbridge,” Oda said.

“As the Minister for International Cooperation, I have had the opportunity to witness the hardships of the worlds most vulnerable peoples and have witnessed the great compassion of Canadians for those in need.”

Her decision comes ahead of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s planned cabinet shuffle, expected to start in August and continue into September. The shuffle is expected to be significant, a reflection of the mishaps and missteps of the Conservative caucus.

“I don’t think this comes as a big surprise. You could characterize it as an honourable move by Bev Oda,” said Kathy Brock, a politics professor at Queen’s University.

Oda’s departure means Harper won’t be forced to shuffle her out of cabinet himself, said Brock, who studies federal politics.

“I think this is a situation where she is doing the right thing on behalf of the Prime Minister and the [Conservative] party.”

Oda wasn’t expected to survive the shuffle after her latest spending controversy in which she stayed at a luxury hotel in London, England, on the public dollar and ordered a $16 glass of orange juice.

She was heavily criticized for staying at the Savoy, a swanky hotel frequented by royalty, after refusing to sleep at a cheaper five-star hotel. She also hired a limousine to drive her around during the trip, at a cost of $1,000 a day.

She later paid back the difference between the costs of the two hotels.

Some other questions about Oda’s spending habits abroad have yet to be resolved. Records show that Oda modified the amounts related to expenses on a number of recent trips, but has refused to reveal why those figures were changed.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has been inundated with access to information requests in the past few months.

Oda faced another major controversy at CIDA, when aid organization Kairos was turned down for government funding in 2009. Oda originally said in 2010 the agency did not approve funding because Kairos’ proposals did not meet the government’s standards.

But Oda was later forced to apologize to the House of Commons when a document turned up showing that CIDA officials had actually greenlighted the funding, but she had the word “not” inserted into the approval form.

The Speaker of the Commons, Peter Milliken, had called the incident “troubling.”

Oda was previously the minister of Canadian heritage and of the status of women. At Status of Women Canada, she oversaw the overhauling of the terms and conditions of the women’s program, removing advocacy and research from work eligible for funding — in favour of more service-oriented projects.

“Under Bev’s guidance, Canada has led a significant initiative to save the lives of mothers, children and newborns in the developing world. Bev has also promoted accountability and effectiveness for Canada’s aid programs and has championed high-profile efforts to respond to humanitarian tragedies in Haiti, Pakistan and the Horn of Africa,” Harper said in a statement.

“Through Bev’s leadership, Canada has also met, ahead of schedule, its commitment to double aid to Africa. This is a record of which to be proud.”

Harper also thanked Oda for her “hard work and dedication in representing the constituents of Durham.”

National Post, with files from The Canadian Press

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/minister-bev-oda-to-resign-from-post/feed/25stdCanada's International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.Michael Den Tandt on a cabinet shuffle: Who’s getting the axe?http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/michael-den-tandt-as-harpers-mulls-cabinet-shuffle-whos-flying-high-and-who-is-getting-the-axe
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/michael-den-tandt-as-harpers-mulls-cabinet-shuffle-whos-flying-high-and-who-is-getting-the-axe#commentsTue, 19 Jun 2012 21:04:06 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=82343

“And what is so rare a day in June?” wrote the poet James Russell Lowell. “Then, if ever, come perfect days.” Except in Ottawa, where the fairest month is primarily a time to speculate about the entrails of power. Who’s up, who’s down and who’s out in the cabinet shuffle expected before the fall session?

This season, as in the past, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is holding his cards preternaturally close to his vest. However, he is expected to put a new face on the government beginning in early August with a deputy-minister shuffle, then continuing in late August or September at the ministerial level.

Conservative insiders expect this remix will be substantial, as the government seeks to re-calibrate following a first year in majority during which it was repeatedly buffeted by controversy, ministerial missteps and scandal. Though the final roster will remain known only to the PM and perhaps his wife and chief of staff until shortly before it is unveiled, a few names recur.

REUTERS/Chris Wattie // THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick<em>The </em>Post<em> compiles what’s making headlines (and conversation) in Canada’s East. Below, what they’re talking about in…</em>
<strong>Ottawa</strong>
Retro rock band<strong> Cheap Trick is demanding answers to why the stage collapsed while they were playing at the recent Ottawa Bluesfest</strong>, issuing a statement that the ‘70s comeback band “narrowly averted death” when a storm blew down the roof of the stage during the July 17 performance.
“The multi-ton stage roof that fell on everyone on the stage must be properly explained, especially when nearby tents and other temporary structures stood untouched,” the band said in a <a href="http://www.cheaptrick.com/cheap-trick-wants-bands-crews-and-fans-protected&quot; target="_blank">statement posted on their website</a>.
Cheap Trick finished playing their hit song “I Want You to Want Me” around 7:20 p.m. when high winds knocked down the MBNA Stage, forcing 10,000 people to take shelter in the nearby Canadian War Museum.
Groupe Berger, the Montreal company that built the stage, <a href="http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Cheap+Trick+wants+answers+Ottawa+Bluesfest+stage+collapse/5174044/story.html#ixzz1TVOEKh3d&quot; target="_blank">told Postmedia News</a> it had ordered an independent engineering review of the stage design after the collapse, which determined that it was safe. KISS had performed on the same model of stage a few days later in Montreal without any problems, the company said. It was designed by eight engineers and has withstood high wind in the past.
“We’re confident that our structures are good and we did our work,” vice-president Stephan Berger said. “Something very special happened here.”
Bluesfest director Mark Monahan said it will take months for Cheap Trick to get answers to its questions.
“There’s a Ministry of Labour investigation going on, and all of us want answers. I think we have to wait to see what their report will say,” he said.
Festival staff have since been in contact with the band to discuss how to recover some of the band’s damaged equipment.
<strong>Montreal</strong>
A Quebec man says he is doing Montreal’s gay and lesbian community a huge favour by<strong> operating a black-market insemination business that involves handing prospective parents syringes of his own sperm.</strong>
Philippe Normand <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Canada/Montreal/1305551527/ID=2073341283&quot; target="_blank">told the CBC</a> that he has fathered as many as 20 children around the Montreal area in the three years since he opened his online business. He offers his sperm for free and says couples, particularly local lesbian couples, prefer using his service over legalized and government-funded insemination clinics because they get to scope out the prospective father and he’s open to meeting with his offspring later in life. He says he’s been celibate since 2008 and disease-free.
"I'm very honoured to have all these children in my image running around,” he said. The procedure is simple, he says. “I put it in the syringe and then I leave and the people, they [proceed] with the insemination themselves.”
Such black market insemination services are actually illegal, Health Canada told the CBC, because semen is considered a drug under federal rules. It needs to be quarantined for six months to screen for diseases.
<strong>Lower Sackville, N.S.</strong>
<strong>A 42-year-old Halifax-area woman has posted her own online obituary, saying that no one has helped her lose weight</strong> and her ongoing battle with obesity will lead her to an early grave. Lower Sackville’s Lillian Coakley posted the obituary this week after being told she might have to wait more than 10 years to get a gastrectomy from the local obesity clinic.
“We are sad to inform you of the untimely passing of a young mother, sister daughter and friend,” reads the <a href="http://www.weightymatters.ca/2011/07/nova-scotian-on-10-year-wait-for.html&quot; target="_blank">obituary posted on weightymatters.ca</a>. “She died at a young age due to complication with obesity that she fought for years to overcome.”
“There will be no flowers at her request and the body will be cremated as she would hate to be a burden on her family and have to be carried away to her final resting place by a tractor so she spared her family with finding a mass amount of pallbearers and more stares and jokes about her weight as her beloved family mourns the loss of her as they did throughout her life.”
The five-foot-six, 372-pound mother of two said she sobbed as she wrote the obituary, after being put on a 10-year waiting list for gastric surgery at Capital Health’s obesity clinic.
Dr. James Ellsmere, the clinic’s surgical director, <a href="http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1255757.html&quot; target="_blank">told the <em>Halifax Chronicle-Herald</em></a> that about 2,000 people are waiting for the surgery, but with just two surgeons, one dietician and a nurse practitioner, the clinic is overwhelmed.
Patients with serious health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease and asthma take priority over other patients, he said.
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Jim Flaherty is not expected to budge from Finance, as he remains the mainstay of the Tories’ economics team. Three other names top Conservatives’ lists of senior ministers who’ve consistently outperformed and have earned their pick of jobs: Jason Kenney at Immigration, John Baird at Foreign Affairs and James Moore at Heritage.

Any one of these three could be airlifted into Defence to clean house there. The drawback would be that each is helping the government appreciably now in a key portfolio. Kenney is two-thirds of the way through his overhaul of immigration. Baird is hitting his stride as a foreign minister, having spent the better part of the past year outgrowing his old attack-dog persona. Moore has managed to ride herd on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation without a major upheaval — for a Conservative, a feat of ineffable dark magic.

Rempel is bright, a good communicator and holds Jim Prentice’s former seat. Leitch, a pediatric surgeon and frequent pinch-hitter in Question Period, holds the seat once held by Helena Guergis. Rajotte, respected in caucus and chair of the Commons finance committee, has long been deemed a shoo-in for promotion, but has been held back by the preponderance of strong Alberta MPs, including the PM, already in cabinet.

ON THE BANANA PEEL

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick // REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Topping every Tory’s hit list is International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda, who deeply embarrassed the government after it was reported she’d stayed at a high-end hotel in London, England, last year, at taxpayers’ expense. Though Oda repaid more than $1,000 and apologized in the House of Commons, the taint of her $16 glass of orange juice and other lavish spending remains.

Oda’s defenders note she has long had a reputation as an effective manager. However, virtually no one expects her to survive this shuffle. Insiders point out that Alexander, a foreign policy expert and well-regarded former Canadian ambassador to Kabul, would be a tidy fit for Oda’s job, not only because of his background but because his riding abuts hers in Durham, Ont., fulfilling the need for regional representation.

As for Defence, here comes the broom. Both the minister, Peter MacKay, and the associate minister, Julian Fantino, are expected to move, while Chief of the Defence Staff Walter Natynczyk and Deputy Minister Robert Fonberg are believed to be considering retirement. Change at the top is deemed in Conservative circles to be both a managerial necessity and poetic justice, due to the disastrous, slow-bleed mess of the F-35 jet fighter procurement.

MacKay, still protected to some degree by his status as former leader of the old Progressive Conservatives, is expected to save face with a move to either Justice or Public Security. Fantino’s prospects are less clear. He was brought in last year to ride herd on the generals and sort out procurement and that has gone spectacularly badly. And he is a weak performer in the House. Likeliest candidate for taking on the portfolio? Rob Nicholson at Justice managed to steer through controversial tough-on-crime legislation, Bill C-10, while generally keeping out of trouble. Nicholson, insiders believe, may simply swap jobs with MacKay.

Christian Paradis, the Industry Minister and putative Quebec lieutenant, is also a shoo-in for new digs. Setting aside the ethics allegations surrounding his office, he is said to be only minimally engaged in the workings of his department. The PM is in a pickle here as he has a pool of only five Quebec MPs from which to draw. Maxime Bernier is bright and long past the indignity of having forgotten secret briefs, or briefings, at a girlfriend’s home four years ago. But he is deemed a wild card due to his strong libertarian views. The insider betting, therefore, is that Transport Minister Denis Lebel becomes senior Quebec minister and possibly takes on Industry.

Last on the list of widely expected departures is Vic Toews. The public security minister torpedoed his own online surveillance bill, C-30, last fall by blurting that anyone opposed to the legislation was in league with child pornographers. The ensuing public backlash, with accompanying Tweeting of details of Toews’ divorce by a Liberal staffer, was among the ugliest episodes of the majority government’s first year. Toews is said to be ready for a move home to the Prairies, where he eventually could be a candidate for a judicial appointment. His replacement, if it isn’t Peter MacKay, might well be Hoeppner, also from Manitoba, and for years the spark plug in the government’s drive to kill the long-gun registry.

UNKNOWNS

Random House unveils new digital initiatives, including launch of a magazine and a line of e-booksWith newspapers and magazines entering the world of book publishing -- the <em>National Post</em>, for instance, launched a line of e-books in 2011 -- perhaps it should come as no surprise that book publishers are entering the world of magazines and newspapers.
On Thursday, Random House of Canada launched <a href="http://www.randomhouse.ca/hazlitt&quot; target="_blank"><em>Hazlitt</em></a>, an online magazine that anchors the company's new digital strategy and transforms the company's previously moribund website into a new publication featuring original content from established and emerging writers.
"The founding premise of the magazine is that good writers, good voices, can make any topic interesting," said Robert Wheaton, the company's vice president and director of strategic digital business development, at a presentation unveiling the website earlier this week.
<img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-82482" title="Hazlitt" src="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/hazlitthome_randomhouseca.png?w=300&quot; alt="" width="300" height="536" />
Wheaton said the magazine, under the direction of editor-in-chief Christopher Frey, will feature both household names and up-and-coming writers. A glance at the website Thursday revealed articles by the likes of Hari Kunzru, Sarah Nicole Prickett, and the late Christopher Hitchens. Frey described the magazine, named after the 19th century critic and journalist William Hazlitt, as "absurdly eclectic" and "writer-centric."
"We have to stop thinking of ourselves as just factories of books, and think of all the different ways that we can connect with people, and tell stories," said Frey, who joined Random House of Canada in January after, most recently, editing the <em>Toronto Standard</em>.
Wheaton promised that the magazine will have an "independent editorial identity," and will feature both writers and books from publishers other than Random House. Yet while there will be new content every day, the magazine will not feature book reviews, at least in the traditional sense.
"We're in an awkward position," admitted Frey. "We would be more likely to talk about books, both our own and potentially others, more as a trigger for a think piece, or a larger discussion."
The magazine is just one part in the company's larger digital transformation. Also launching this week is <a href="http://www.randomhouse.ca/books/hazlitt-originals&quot; target="_blank">Hazlitt Originals</a>, a line of e-books in the tradition of Byliner Originals and Kindle Singles. The first title is <em>The Man Who Went To War</em>, a memoir about Canadian journalist Patrick Graham's experiences in Libya, while future titles include UK journalist Steven Poole's "anti-foodie screed" <em>You Aren't What You Eat</em> and Ivor Tossell's <em>The Gift of Ford</em>, about the controversial Toronto mayor.
"Traditionally, publishers have used their websites for sales and marketing," said Brad Martin, Random House of Canada's president and CEO, in a press release announcing the new ventures. "We believe publishers should also use their websites to publish."

This leaves question marks over the heads of two important players — Tony Clement at Treasury Board and Rona Ambrose in Public Works.

Clement is deemed by Conservative insiders to have been winged, but not mortally wounded, by the long-running saga of G20 infrastructure spending in his riding of Parry-Sound Muskoka. He is expected to remain in cabinet, perhaps making a lateral move. Ambrose, likewise, has been on the margins of the F-35 imbroglio, but is not deemed to be wearing any of it personally. She remains one of the government’s most credible communicators. Public Works is due for a change in top ministerial staff, sources say, but Ambrose herself is not expected to move, except perhaps laterally.

At first glance the federal government’s proposed changes to the Department of National Defence’s soldier suicide prevention program is an offense against common human decency, and it doesn’t much inspire confidence that this news arrives from the Minister of National Defence, who has made headlines in recent months for indulging himself needlessly on the public dollar. The principle that Austerity Is Good For Everyone Else is a familiar hypocrisy, and on this foundation we now apprehend Parliamentarians such as Peter MacKay and Bev Oda.

Indulgence necessarily brings us to the question, Why are these under-performing lugs still warming their over-priced Centre Block seats? Why is a mediocrity and liability like MacKay able to preside over the affairs of veterans, praised by politicians when it’s a matter of expedience but otherwise under-valued, in this supposed time of cost-consciousness? Was Conservative MP Rob Anders representing the sentiments of his caucus when he fell asleep in a Halifax meeting with veterans? Perhaps Ottawa is no longer alive to the pulse of the nation anywhere. One thing is certain. To promote the interests of soldiers has been, in recent years, to know the indifference of the federal government. Speaking of Halifax: consider the five-year battle of Nova Scotian Dennis Manuge, which this week ended with a Federal Court of Canada ruling against the government’s claw-backs of SISIP long term disability benefits for disabled veterans. According to a May 2 press release of the Veterans Ombudsman, “all witnesses who appeared before us, with the exception of witnesses from the Department of National Defence, felt the reductions were indeed unfair.”

This business of nickel-and-diming those who have served in the armed forces is neither new nor restricted to Canada, but it rankles nonetheless. Mr. MacKay claims that “Canada has become a world leader in fighting the stigmatization and raising awareness of PTSD and other operational stress injuries,” but in the meanwhile his department has forced veterans to take legal action and has brought substantial grief to Canada’s Veterans Ombudsman Guy Parent, on issues ranging from denied claims for the Agent Orange ex gratia payment to decisions made by the Veterans Review and Appeal Board. Now, despite the Department of National Defence’s acknowledged priority of post-deployment PTSD treatment and suicide prevention, the politicians appear to be offering little more than vague platitudes and assurances of commitment.

It’s not only bad politics to deny services to disabled and distressed veterans, it’s bad policy. As bad policy, the government’s ill-considered parsimony undermines the relationship of trust and reciprocity between those who serve and those who are served. As bad politics, this instance of mealy-mouthing and short-changing makes the Harper Government look distant from, and unresponsive to, Canadians of every variety. But these are matters for Canadians themselves to weigh — and, Mr. Harper, you can be certain that they will.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/wayne-k-spear-ottawa-mixes-platitudes-with-parsimony-for-canadas-veterans/feed/0stdRemembrance Day in AfghanistanToday’s letters: A lesson for Bev Oda on international developmenthttp://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/todays-letters-a-lesson-for-bev-oda-on-international-development
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/todays-letters-a-lesson-for-bev-oda-on-international-development#commentsSat, 28 Apr 2012 13:30:53 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=76412

Re: Heart of Tanzania, April 27.
Many news stories about Israel are focused on the conflict with the Arab world. So it is heartwarming to read of the lifesaving work done by Israeli-trained doctors to treat children who otherwise would perish. The fact that most of these children come from countries that are avowed enemies of Israel makes no difference to the doctors who see them as patients in need of help.
The massive benefit Israel offers through its humanitarian actions such as those in Haiti after the earthquake or in Japan after the tsunami follows the Jewish obligation of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world).
The most effective way to do so is described by Maimonides as the highest level of charity. That is the empowerment of those in need to help themselves. In training Dr. Godwin Godfrey and setting up Tanzania’s first pediatric cardiac surgery unit, Israel has done exactly that. Dr. Steve Samuel, chairman, Doctors Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, Toronto.

What a heartwarming story about a young man, dedicated to improving the life of his country’s heart patients.
I hope Bev Oda reads this story. Maybe she will realize that there are better ways to spent international development money. Hilke Wieringa, Brampton, Ont.

Re: Memo To Harper: Fire Bev Oda (II), letters to the editor, April 27.
Bev Oda’s recent London shenanigans are a disgrace to moral principles. She should grow a moral backbone and resign. The Conservatives are looking more and more like a party that has been in power too long. Stephen Harper, please keep in mind that the privilege to govern is awarded by the people. John Lawlor, Ottawa.

Wouldn’t you love to see the pictures of Stephen Harper that recidivist Cabinet minister Bev Oda must have. Lyman MacInnis, Toronto.

Quebec reality

Re: Ignatieff Tells It Like It Is On Quebec, John Ivison; The Quebec Dependence Movement, Tasha Kheiriddin, both April 26.
John Ivison’s and Tasha Kheiriddin’s columns about Quebec both make very valid points. Although Quebec operates in many ways like a separate country, it will probably never be in a position to separate because of its high debt levels, serious economic problems and its citizens’ love of big government, which is very expensive.
Quebec desperately needs the billions in equalization it receives each year to fund its generous social programs. Quebecers have a huge sense of entitlement in terms of what they expect from both the federal and provincial governments, as shown by the ongoing student protests.
They are too spoiled to give up their economic dependence on Canada’s have provinces. Showing individual initiative and making sacrifices to create their own country are things that the vast majority of Quebecers would never be prepared to do. Tom Healy, Gatineau, Que.

Like former Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s use of cheap booze and cigarettes to help mollify an otherwise restive domestic population, Quebec’s successive provincial governments have gained support among a growing cohort of young voters by purposefully maintaining users’ direct costs of education, in vitro fertilization and day care at unnaturally depressed levels. Massive federal transfer payments have subsidized subsequent artificially inflated political popularity for over 40 years, which speaks more to clever demographic analysis and successful political pandering than it does to progressive social policy.
It is exactly that sort of political acumen — the kind that transforms ongoing state sponsorship into perceived nationalistic sentiment — that may have deluded Michael Ignatieff into believing that, “Effectively, we’re almost two separate countries,” or that Quebec is a “way station” on the road to independence.
From the combined heights of his former parliamentary office and academic perch, he viewed Quebec’s continued wresting of federal powers as evidence for the eventual extinction of confederation as we know it. But from ground level, the universal desire needed for Quebecers to leave their protected cocoons within Canada and North America simply does not exist.
More Franco-like in their self-serving policy implementation, Quebec’s political leadership is acutely aware of how to successfully manipulate its pampered electorate and now, unfortunately, how to co-opt one of federalism’s otherwise more astute advocates. Mark S. Rash, Winnipeg.

Abortion reality

Re: An Abortion ‘Consensus’ That Never Existed, Father Raymond J. de Souza, April 26.
Raymond J. de Souza repeats an unfortunately common misconception that, because there is no criminal law regulating abortion, there is no control over it. This is not true.
Provinces and territories regulate the provision of medical services, as well as medical practitioners. The Canadian Medical Association policy on abortion defines the procedure as the termination of a pregnancy before viability — the point at which a fetus could survive. The CMA policy notes that survival might be possible once a fetus has reached 500 grams or 20 weeks of gestation. Doctors are expected to consider fetal viability when considering whether to perform an abortion.
Hospitals and clinics set upper limits on abortion “on demand,” typically in the range of 20-22 weeks, but some as low as 16 weeks. According to 2010 statistics, 70% of abortions took place before 12 weeks, 80% before 20 weeks and less than 2% after 20 weeks (information was not available for 18%).
Abortions after 20 weeks are usually performed because the woman’s health or life is in serious danger or the fetus has a severe or lethal abnormality. Abortions after 24 weeks are exceedingly rare. Marnie McCall, Ottawa.

The remarkable advances in science that reveal the humanity of a developing baby in utero indeed puts pro-science abortion supporters in an untenable position; otherwise adamant materialists cling to wilful ignorance of scientific realities to maintain an increasingly indefensible notion of personhood, both scientifically and morally.
One needn’t share the Catholic faith of Father Raymond J. de Souza to share his conviction — the late, great heathen Christopher Hitchens defended his pro-life stance on scientific grounds.
Daniel Innis, Burlington, Ont.

Re: Abortion Orthodoxy Turned On Its Head, Chris Selley, April 27.
Chris Selley is quite accurate in his almost satirical assessment of the politically correct view of abortion in Canada: It’s pro-choice, no debate allowed. What is less clear is why he would find it “genuinely astonishing” that Catholic schools don’t follow that particular view, or that politicians don’t challenge them on it. The denominational rights of Catholic schools, including the teaching of the faith, are recognized by both the Constitution and the human rights code. Respect for life from conception to natural death is an important Catholic teaching.
“Public” money includes the taxes paid by Catholics, who form about one-third of the population in Ontario, and people don’t send their children to Catholic schools expecting religious neutrality. Joanne McGarry, executive director, Catholic Civil Rights League, Toronto.

Protest reality

Re: Don’t Negotiate With Violent Students, editorial, April 27.
I can only wonder if the “students” causing all the problems in Montreal are the same morons that we always have in Vancouver? It would be interesting to know what percentage are actually students? I would guess it would be less than 50%.
Any students convicted of destroying property and/or assault should be barred from attending any university or college in Quebec for five years. And I agree that negotiations should not be held with the students until they come to the table in a peaceful legal way. François Cleroux, Vancouver.

Palestinian reality

Re: Mideast Peace, letter to the editor, April 26; The (Jewish) Threat From Within, book excerpt, April 23.
Letter-writer Ezra Franken dismisses Gershon Geronberg’s excerpt describing the takeover of certain occupied Palestinian lands by radical settlers as being “Jewish outposts … established on barren Judean hilltops, with no local Arabs displaced, in order to allow modern Jews from Israel and overseas to nobly settle in their ancient homeland.”
Well, no. When you break into someone’s house, whether or not you steal the family silver or last night’s discarded dinner scraps, it is still theft, and it is still wrong. Allan H. Adams, Ottawa.

More ‘inaccurate reporting’

Re: Vigilante Justice, Kelly McParland, April 27.
Kelly McParland’s measured column, warning about the perils of rushing to judgment, contains a small but significant error. He says that Toronto police Superintendent Mario Di Tommaso acknowledged that “some of our own 14 Division officers” had contributed to the “inaccurate reporting.”
The superintendent said no such thing. He said, in fact, “Unfortunately, some of our own 14 Division officers have recently fallen victim to inaccurate reporting wherein the alleged events of on-going investigations are suspiciously one-sided.” Mark Pugash, Toronto Police Service.